Chital can be farmed together with carp species, and it is a very profitable fish to farm. It grows quickly, and in mixed culture it suffers from no diseases, so chital farming can easily be profitable for you. But there are a few things to keep in mind.

Release 5–6 chital fingerlings per decimal. Because chital live by eating the fry of small fish, tilapia brood fish must be released into the pond as food, at 5–7 tilapia brood for every chital.

Stock chital of 3–6 inches in the culture pond. If you release 5 chital per decimal, you need 35–40 tilapia brood. The tilapia will breed and the chital will eat the young. Chital can also be farmed with rui and catla.

Choose a large pond, gher or beel for chital, because the bigger the area, the greater the profit: fish grow faster in large waters. A single chital reaches at least 2–3 kg a year.

Chital have very strong disease resistance, so in mixed culture there is hardly any disease.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.